Traction Test - The Best 200-Treadwear Tires

We are living in the golden age of tire technology. Today, you can outfit your car in street-legal rubber that would make Dan Gurney jealous, and upgraded suspension and braking components mean that classic-car owners can take advantage of all that black magic. Even better, SCCA, NASA, Optima, and Goodguys have autocross and road course events all over the country, so you can test out your new tires in full-on competition. As is always the problem when we have an excess of great choices, the glut of street-legal performance tires can make choosing new rollers somewhat intimidating. Is there really any difference between the top brands?

To find out, we headed to Tire Rack in South Bend, Indiana, where pro driver and tire-tech Woody Rogers helped us test seven popular tire brands, all street-legal “summer performance” tires, all speed rated to more than 149 mph, and all legal for 200-treadwear classes. Tire Rack regularly tests product, but its test car of choice is the 2012 BMW 328i. Clearly that wouldn’t do for HOT ROD, so we bribed autocross racer Kevin Wesley to let us wear out the lug nuts on his 1970 Satellite. Aside from being a four-door, the big-block Plymouth is an excellent representation of a well-built, moderate budget Pro-Touring car, with Hotchkis suspension, Viper brakes, and a stroked 400 putting out around 500 hp, and our test driver Woody came back from the initial warm-up lap full of enthusiasm over the car’s neutral handling and ready power.

Our track involved a slalom, a 180-turn followed by a fast sweeper, a 90-degree turn, and a short straightaway. A single lap was in the 28-second range, so we chose to do two laps to be more in keeping with a 50-60-second SCCA-type course. We started the test with seven sets of brand-new 275/35R18 tires on identical 18-inch wheels. Each tire got a break-in lap, followed by two timed laps and a cool down. Woody would bring the car in, check the tire pressures and head out again. Each tire ended up with six timed laps, and we chose our final results from the fastest lap pair. To eliminate the possibility of track or weather changes skewing our results, we used the Bridgestone Potenza RE-11 as a control, running the car on the Potenzas in the morning, midway through the test, and as the final tire. This allowed us to adjust the final times to make up for any track changes.

Bridgestone Potenza RE-11 (control)

Tire Pressures: 38/34 psi cold; 42/38 psi hot

2/12Bridgestone Potenza RE-11

Best Single Lap: 28.83 seconds

Best Two-Lap Set: 57.98 seconds

Analysis: Technically, the Potenza did not fit the criteria for our test, since it’s currently rated at 180-treadwear. However, Bridgestone is in the process of changing the treadwear rating on this tire to 200, and in early 2014, it will be legal for Goodguys and other 200-treadwear classes. For this reason, we decided to include it now. We also used it as our control tire.

Driver Notes: The breakaway characteristics (how the tire behaves as it approaches the limits of grip) are progressive and not abrupt. That’s a good thing for driver confidence. On the downside, you couldn’t be aggressive on the brakes without locking up the front, and the response in the slalom was acceptable but not crisp, even at high pressures. Woody complained that the tire was a bit “elastic” in feel, “like stepping in gum.”

BFGoodrich g-Force Rival

Tire Pressures: 38/34 psi cold; 42/38 psi hot

3/12BFGoodrich G-Force Rival

Best Single Lap: 28.44 seconds

Best Two-Lap Set: 57.10 seconds

Analysis: The Rival is a relatively new tire and offers sizes specifically targeted at Pro Touring muscle cars and hot rods. We found the tire was very easy to drive at several different air pressure settings, with good grip and lots of forgiveness near the limits of traction.

Driver Notes: The Rival has good reviews, both online, and from our driver. Woody said he was able to do “more of everything versus the control, especially braking traction and steady-state lateral grip.” At lower tire pressures the car was less responsive in the slalom, and while Woody described the tire as being very driveable, he also said it was hard to find its sweet spot. “Compared to the Dunlop, the Rival’s shortcoming is balance. It has plenty of latitude at the limit but it’s harder to optimize.”

Dunlop Direzza ZII

Tire Pressures: 38/34 psi cold; 42/38 psi hot

4/12Dunlop Direzza Zii

Best Single Lap: 28.14 seconds

Best Tow-Lap Set: 56.43 seconds

Analysis: We’re in love with this tire. The Direzza was a run-away winner in our test getting high marks in every corner, on acceleration, and during braking. Woody’s first notes on it read, “Magic from the first corner of the first lap!”

Driver Notes: Woody couldn’t stop raving about the Dunlop, describing it as having “Smooth power delivery and no axlehop. It brakes well, carves the corner, and is very responsive through the slalom. The front and rear are always in harmony. It’s as if the controls—including steering, brakes, and especially throttle—suddenly have much finer resolution. I can choose exactly the amount of input I want, and I know exactly how much to ask for. I can keep the load on and simply change the axis I’m asking for, all while keeping the tire loaded in one or multiple directions.”

Hankook Ventus R-S3 Z222

Tire Pressures: 38/34 psi cold; 42/38 psi hot

5/12Hankook Ventus R-S3 Z222

Best Single Lap: 28.43 seconds

Best Two-Lap Set: 56.90 seconds

Analysis: The Ventus has little flames in the tread, which should give you some idea of the audience this tire is designed for. Happily, Hankook must have put some thought into more than tread decoration because the Ventus scored well in our test. Although the Ventus ended up with good lap times, Woody wasn’t super impressed with the feel of it, especially when cold.

Driver Notes: The Ventus was very responsive once it warmed up and ended up with our second fastest lap time. “The first lap had lots of wheelspin. Corner exit is about balancing motion versus progress, as the tire wants to slide the rear when accelerating past the apex.”

Michelin Pilot Super Sport

Tire Pressures: 38/34 psi cold; 42/38 psi hot

6/12Michelin Pilot Super Sport

Best Single Lap: 28.86 seconds

Best Two-Lap Set: 57.79 seconds

Analysis: The Pilot Super Sports have a racing and high-performance heritage and are original equipment on many sports cars and exotics, including the C7 Corvette. At 25 pounds, it’s also the lightest tire in our test by several pounds.

Driver Notes: “Awesome at the front turn-in and under straight-line braking and acceleration but not as stable coming out of the apex, and it didn’t perform well at lower tire pressures.”

Falken RT-615K

Tire Pressures: 38/34 psi cold; 42/38 psi hot

7/12Falken RT-615K

Best Single Lap: 28.56 seconds

Best Two-Lap Set: 57.36 seconds

Analysis: Falken is a sponsoring brand at many grassroots autocross and drifting events. We’ve certainly seen some winning cars at Goodguys running these tires. Woody had mixed feelings about the RT-615K, finding it less forgiving than some of the other tires in the test.

Driver Notes: “Turn-in is good, longitudinal traction is not. Need to be careful during acceleration at corner exit. It’s critical to stay on time and balance with power through the slalom or the tail will quickly start wagging the dog if you lift off the throttle at all.”

Nitto NT05

Tire Pressures: 38/34 psi cold; 42/38 psi hot

8/12Nitto NT05

Best Single Lap: 29.59 seconds

Best Two-Lap Set: 59.37 seconds

Analysis: The Nitto is the least expensive tire in our test, more than $200 dollars cheaper for a set of four than most of our other test tires. You’ll have to decide if that is money saved though, since the NT05 didn’t perform nearly as well as some of the more expensive tires.

Driver Notes: “There is a lack of grip, especially at the rear. You cannot challenge this tire because it will spin or slide. The braking traction is not great. Feels like not enough tire for the capability of the car.

Which Tire Is Right For You?

We did have a clear winner in the Dunlop Direzza ZII, and Woody said they felt as good as they showed in the results. This doesn’t mean that you couldn’t get out there and win on any of the other brands in this test. There is a lot to be said for driver confidence in improving lap times, so if you find a tire that makes you feel good about your car, you’re likely to go faster. Tires like the Rival and the Potenza, with their predictable breakaway characteristics might give a driver the mental push they need to win, whereas tires like the Ventus or the Super Sport, which required more patience, might make a rookie driver nervous. This kind of racing is all about having fun. If you can’t trust your tire, what can you trust? One thing is for certain, if you’re still racing on BFG Radial T/As, any tire on this page will give you a mega-boost in driving enjoyment.

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Tire

Best Two-Lap Total (seconds)

Weight (per tire)

Cost (per tire)*

Dunlop Direzza ZII

56.43

30 pounds

$278

Hankook Ventus R-S3 Z222

56.90

27 pounds

$282

BFGoodrich g-Force Rival

57.10

27 pounds

$279

Falken Azenis RT615K

57.36

27 pounds

$273

Michelin Pilot Super Sport

57.79

25 pounds

$252

Bridgestone Potenza RE-11

57.98

29 pounds

$228

Nitto NT05

59.37

27 pounds

$219

*All tire prices found online at time of publication.

The Test Car

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Kevin Wesley rules because he built a fast four-door. His 1970 Plymouth Satellite is powered by a 451ci Chrysler with a Comp hydraulic cam, Ferrea valves in Bull Dog aluminum heads, Milodon oil pan, and a Quick Fuel 750 carb on a Holley Strip Dominator backed by a Keisler five-speed. On a dragstrip, it runs a traction-limited 12.77; on the autocross, it makes jaws drop. Woody said the Satellite was more than a second quicker per lap than Tire Rack’s standard BMW test cars, running times similar to his personal autocross car, a race-prepped Honda S2000. Not bad for a 3,850-pound taxi cab.

The Satellite is still a torsion-bar, leaf-spring car, with control arm, sway bar, spring and shock upgrades from Hotchkis Sport Suspension and steering mods from Firm Feel. For stopping power, the Plymouth has 11.75-inch Chrysler discs and Viper calipers.

Kevin built the car with support from Hotchkis as something fast and fun that could be used as a demo car at events to win people over to the idea of a well-handling muscle car. It certainly won over the Tire Rack guys.

Are Your Tire Pressures Too Low?

There’s a tendency in racing to drop the tire pressure whenever there’s a complaint about traction. The theory is that less air means more tire on the ground, but this isn’t always true; in autocross or road racing, too-low tire pressure can slow you down and lead to rapid tire wear. In order to find the right tire pressure for your setup, you need to start with a fairly high cold pressure. Mark the area on the tire where the racing compound ends and the sidewall begins. This varies by manufacturer, and contrary to popular belief, the little arrow on the sidewall doesn’t point to the end of the compound, but rather to where the wear strips are in the tire tread.

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Make a lap with your high pressures and check the wear pattern. Drop the pressure until you are scuffing the whole of the tread, but not overlapping into the sidewall. This isn’t a sportbike, people, there’s no street cred or race advantage from a scuffed sidewall. If you find that you are regularly getting blistering or chunking on a tire, it’s likely you are running your pressures too low—or you do a lot of drifting. Tires hate drifting.

Chunky!

Heat causes accelerated wear. Sliding the car is fun, but it’s hard on your tires. Develop a smooth driving style, and you’ll be faster and save wear and tear.

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Test Equipment

To get accurate lap times and a breakdown of lateral and longitudinal g-forces, we used a Race Technology DL1 data logger. The DL1 uses a combination of GPS and an internal accelerometer, which provides accurate lap timing to the hundredth of a second and records all the data to a flash card for us to look at in cool, sciencey graph form afterward.

Watch Us Tear Up These Tires!
Go to YouTube.com and search “HOT ROD Unlimited, episode 44.”